Conventionally, an RFID device can be considered to have two primary components, that is, an antenna and an integrated circuit (IC). The IC includes circuitry to interface with the antenna, encode or decode logic circuitry, signal processing circuitry, memory, and possibly other functionalities. The memory, which is generally non-volatile memory, is usually of small size, such as several hundred bits, although any size could theoretically be employed. The IC typically includes a coupling capacitor for storing transmitted energy from the electromagnetic field generated by an RFID reader to the IC of the RFID device.
The RFID antenna, which is commonly a coil type antenna, interacts with the electromagnetic field and is electrically interconnected to the IC. The antenna is tuned to the frequency of the reader device with which the antenna is intended to be used. For example, 13.56 MHZ is a commonly used frequency. As one example, the RFID antenna is typically made of a thin stripe of metal referred to herein as a conductive trace. The RFID antenna receives a radio frequency signal from the RFID reader and converts the signal to DC power, which is stored in the coupling capacitor of the IC. This stored DC power is generally small, but considered sufficient to transmit stored identification information to the RFID reader. Unfortunately, in certain implementations, this weak energy is insufficient to send the information to the RFID reader.